Real Madrid: Toni Kroos defends Vinicius Jr after El Clásico

Europe 28 October 2025 at 06:16

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Vinicius Jr

26.10.25 FT LaLiga Spain

Real Madrid

Barcelona

In the past few hours, Toni Kroos has spoken out to defend Vinicius Jr just two days after El Clásico.

Since Sunday night, Vinicius’s reaction when he was substituted during El Clásico has continued to fuel debate. While the Spanish press has been relentless in its criticism of the Brazilian—who even went as far as to threaten to “leave the team” Real Madrid—Toni Kroos has stepped forward to defend his former teammate. “When you have an exceptional match, especially in a game like this, you can’t be satisfied. I never liked being substituted either. To be honest, I never went straight to the locker room after being taken off. People can always judge from the outside. I like to keep in mind that, in reality, those who are on the pitch during a Clásico, in front of 80,000 fans and with a 2-1 scoreline, want anything but to leave. No one can judge or imagine that emotion. Or often, most of those who judge don’t put themselves in their shoes,” the German told AS.

🗣️ Toni Kroos: “Vinicius reaction? When you play an exceptional game, especially in a game like this, you are not happy. I never liked being replaced either. But to be fair, I've never gone straight to the locker room, but he did return.” pic.twitter.com/2BKfqsBicb
— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) October 28, 2025

A Real Madrid player for ten years, Kroos emphasized that this moment of anger shouldn’t damage the relationship between Vinicius and manager Xabi Alonso, since the latter will understand the situation as a former player himself: “He could hold back his anger a bit more. I understand his frustration, but as you can see in the footage, it wasn’t expressed in the best way. Nevertheless, I want to highlight that being out there in such a match is an emotionally exceptional situation. I’ve experienced it several times, so you shouldn’t always take everything too seriously. Coaches usually don’t either. Especially those who have been players themselves.”

Joshua SOSSOU

Editorfr, en, ar

As a sports fan, and particularly a football fan, I've been putting my writing talent to good use for a number of years now to promote African talent and the continent's football in general. On Foot Africa, enjoy reading each of my lines.